


Thriller Bark

by TigerMultiverse



Series: Straw Hat Kaiyo [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji, Original Character(s), Post-Thriller Bark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 02:44:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerMultiverse/pseuds/TigerMultiverse
Summary: Kaiyo’s take after Zoro’s sacrifice at Thriller Bark.
Relationships: Kaiyo & Zoro, Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji, Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji, Sanji & Kaiyo
Series: Straw Hat Kaiyo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1544869
Kudos: 12





	Thriller Bark

**Author's Note:**

> [Amino](http://aminoapps.com/p/li01pxd) | [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tigermultiverse)

Kaiyo sat on a piece of rubble with her knees to her chest and arms wrapped around them as stared out into the sea, her thoughts drifting to unwanted memories. After they freed the souls on Thriller Bark and fought Kuma Bartholomew, they had a big party with booze, dancing, and Sanji's amazing meals.

But, even after the warlord left and the party ended, the young Straw Hat was still troubled. But she didn’t have anything to worry about, everyone was fine, right?

Not everyone was fine. Zoro took a really bad hit from Kuma, and Chopper didn’t know if he would make it. Luckily, the swordsman pulled through, after the party they came into the makeshift infirmary and saw Zoro sitting up in bed. Everyone bombarded him with hugs and yelling, telling him that he worried them. And when asked what happened, he just shook it off, saying nothing happened.

But something did happen, when Sanji and Kaiyo woke up and found nothing but his swords, they panicked. Sanji ran ahead and went looking for the Moss head, Kaiyo a few steps behind him. Once she caught up to him, she thought her heart stopped. In front of her stood Zoro and Sanji, but Zoro was covered and surrounded in his blood, it dropped off him and onto the ground. From where she was standing, Kaiyo couldn’t tell if he was grimacing in pain or dead. She barely registered that Sanji was shouting at Zoro for answers, looking for a sign that he was alive. The swordsman grunted and with obvious effort, said that nothing happened, after that he fell forward and passed out in Sanji’s arms. Kaiyo stood there in shock as the cook freaked out and checked to see if he was still alive. He sighed in relief and pulled Zoro onto his back and hurriedly walked back to his crew, he looked behind him and saw that Kaiyo was still frozen on the spot. Sanji called out to her, snapping her out of the shock, and told her to stay close to her.

When they found the others, Chopper took the unconscious Zoro into his arms and rushed to get him medical help. The crew and Rolling Pirates followed him back to the infirmary, but Kaiyo stayed in place, the shock of it all still there.

She didn’t know how long she was standing there, but before long her knees gave out on her and she fell to the ground, her eyes glazed over and staring out into space. Her wounds had stopped bleeding at this point, but they still stung. Kaiyo felt…off, like she wasn’t in her body, she felt sick and everything around her didn’t come to her mind. She must have sat there on her knees for an hour or two, because soon she felt someone shaking her right shoulder gently. Kaiyo looked to her right and saw Sanji, wearing a blue hoodie and bandages around his head. He looked at her in concern and said that she needed to go to Chopper, she nodded and tried to stand up.

Key word “tried”. As soon as the young Straw Hat stood on her shaking legs, they gave out and sent her falling to the ground once again, but before she could, Sanji caught her with his arm. Seeing that she couldn’t walk, he picked her up into his arms, her head resting on his shoulder and arms around his neck, and carried her to the infirmary.

The walk there was filled with silence, sans the footsteps. Sanji didn’t ask, Kaiyo didn’t speak.

When they got to Chopper, he was in his human form and just finished patching up Zoro and the others. He took Kaiyo from the cooks arms and sat her on a piece of wall, leaving for a minute before coming back with clean clothes and fresh bandages, he took off her jacket and proceeded to clean and wrap her wounds. Once he was done, he told her to go and change her clothes. When she came back, the shock was still there, Chopper noticed this and told Sanji to sit with her and calm her down.

When Kaiyo came out of her shock, it was dinner and the Rolling Pirates were throwing a party. The pair made their way to the dining room and joined in on the party, Sanji went to the kitchen to prepare the food and Kaiyo sat next to the wall and watched everyone dance, and sing, and laugh.

She was about to go to sleep before Brook bagan playing ‘Bink’s Sake’. Everyone began singing along and dancing to the widely known pirate song. Soon, she found herself also singing along and dancing with Sanji as the skeleton kept playing the song. After the party, and it was time to go to sleep, Kaiyo was still troubled about what happened, so was Sanji, but they didn’t talk about it.

They went to sleep, nightmares plaguing their dreams.

And that’s how Kaiyo found herself here, after Zoro woke up, she avoided him as best she could, not being able to look at him without being reminded that he could have died.

Her grip tightened on her arms, gaze darkening. Her emotions rising as she thought about Zoro not caring that he could have died. Not caring that they could have lost him. He still didn’t talk about what happened with Bartholomew, not even mentioning it.

And she knew that Sanji knows something about it, in the infirmary, two of the Rolling Pirates said that they saw what happened to Zoro and Sanji took them away from the others. When they got back, the two Rolling Pirates didn’t talk about it anymore, neither did Sanji.

‘What happened to Zoro?’ Kaiyo thought sadly, tears shining in her sea blue eyes. She thought about all the near death experiences they all had before, and how they all pulled though no matter what, and Kaiyo knew that they would be okay. But, this occasion hit her hard. Maybe because Zoro really could have died at the hands of Bartholomew.

They young Straw Hat grit her teeth as tears finally began streaming down her face. She growled and buried her face in her arms. A gentle breeze blew by, making her hair dance with it. Her grip just tightened on her arms, and she tried curling into herself, trying to make herself as small as possible.

* * *

It was evening when Kaiyo started slowly making her way back, the sky was a beautiful mixture of gold and pink as the sun began to set.

Her eyes were downcast and hand shoved into her pants pockets, steps slow and short, wanting the walk to last as long as possible.

Kaiyo’s thoughts kept drifting to the recent events, no matter how hard she tried to stop them, they came. She didn’t want to confront Zoro, but she had to eventually, he was her Nakama, her friend, but…right now she couldn’t. And for some reason she was angry at Zoro, for taking Bartholomews blow, not telling his Nakama. She felt that she couldn’t be angry at him, because she knew that the swordsman would give his life for his crew at any moment. But…that’s what made her mad, that he was willing to die before ever fulfilling his dream, before being there for Luffy when he became the Pirate King!

Kaiyo stopped, closing her eyes and took deep breaths to try and calm down from the rage filling her thoughts. After a moment, she opened her blue eyes and stared at the sunset over the endless sea, calm finally flowing over her.

Kaiyo dissociated form the world as the beautiful colors on the horizon captivated her, making her think back to when the crew would watch the sunset on the Going Merry after a long and hard day. As she stared at the sunset, she didn’t notice the footsteps coming up behind her.

“Kaiyo.” Said girl jumped at her name being called. She turned around and saw the one she had been trying to avoid, Zoro. He was wearing a black opened shirt with his two swords at his side, Kaiyo could see the bandages around his torso, covering his scar. “We need to talk.”

She only nodded, fully turning her small body to the wounded swordsman. His face was stoic, no emotion betrayed on his face, but his green eyes said everything. They were troubled, filled with concern and conflict.

“About…what?” Kaiyo asked her Nakama, nervousness coursing through her, small beads of sweat falling down her face.

“You’ve been avoiding me.” Despite his zero sense of direction, he was very observant, and that was crucial to being a swordsman. But, Kaiyo hoped that he wouldn’t dwell too much into her distance. Fortunately, he did.

“N-no, I haven’t Zoro-“

“You have.”

Silence reigned, the two Nakama staring at each other. And god Kaiyo just wanted to avoid this for even, but Zoro was always just so hellbent on things.

“…I haven’t been avoiding you Zoro.”

The swordsman's eyes narrowed at her hesitation. “Yes, you have. I want to know what’s wrong.” He said in a firm yet gentle tone, that’s always how Zoro is with her, gentle. And… tone just made her more mad, but she didn’t show it. Zoro kept staring at her, awaiting a response, but Kaiyo just looked away.

“Tell me kid.”

No response.

“Kaiyo…tell me.”

No response.

“Tell me.”

“I was avoiding you because of your fight with Bartholomew okay?” She said finally, spitting the words out as she glared at Zoro. Silence filled the air again, the wind blowing through their hair. Zoro stars at her with mild shock on his face before it returned to his usual scowl.

“You don’t need to worry about it okay? Nothing happened-“

“LIKE HELL NOTHING HAPPENED!”

Zoro recoiled at Kaiyo’s outburst, she rarely swore, since she was 10, but when she did, she was very mad about something. She was breathing heavily, fists clenched tightly at her sides.

“It wasn’t nothing Zoro.” She spat out to him, her hair covering her eyes, making him unable to figure out what she was feeling. “It was bad Zoro. Bad. We were so scared. I was scared.”

Zoro kept staring at her, not knowing what to say to her. He hadn’t expected her to be this shaken up about it. It was nothing, he was fine now, there was no need to worry. He was able to take his captains pain, but she and the crew didn’t know that, and he wasn’t planning on telling them about it.

“Look…I know you guys were worried but…it’s really fine now. I’m fine, okay?” Zoro told Kaiyo in a gentle voice, wanting her to calm down. He only received a glare from the young Straw Hat.

“Things aren’t fine.” Her hands were clenched so hard that her fingernails broke the skin, making her hands bleed.

“Kaiyo-“

“THEY AREN'T FINE!”

“Kid-“

“SHUT UP!”

Her yell shut him up, making the swordsman actually look at her, and he saw tears pouring down her face. But she wasn’t finished.

Kaiyo lowered her head again, staring at the ground. “You could have died Zoro. Died. Before fulfilling your dream. Before seeing Luffy become the King of the Pirates. Don’t you get it?” Zoro couldn’t talk, he just stared at her. Then her head snapped up and she glared at the swordsman and tears kept streaming down her face.

“YOU COULD HAVE DIED YOU BASTARD! AND YOUR SAYING IT'S NOTHING! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW WORRIED ME AND SANJI WERE WHEN WE ONLY FOUND YOUR SWORDS. AND WHEN WE FOUND YOU, IN-IN A LARGE POOL OF BLOOD! W-WE THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! A-AND YOU WOULDN'T C-CARE IF YOU DIED, IF Y-YOU LEFT US! YOU HAD NO P-P-PROBLEM WITH IT! Y-YOU BASTARD! Y-Y-Y-!” Kaiyo cut herself off as a sob for through her throat, fat tears falling down her face. She brought her hand up to try and wipe her tears, but they kept coming.

Zoro just stood there, frozen at her words. He really didn’t expect her to feel that way.

“M-me and Sanji, w-were w-w-worried. You-you looked d-dead when w-we found y-you. We re-really thought tha-that…” Kaiyo couldn’t say anymore as sobs kept coming out her throat. She kept rubbing the tears from her eyes, but they kept coming. Zoro just kept standing there, unknown of what to do. And god her sobs hurt him, her small body shook as sobs wracked through her, her hands still trying to wipe away tears.

They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, unmoving. At her sobbing, Zoro was reminded of how she was after the death of Going Merry, Sanji was holding her in his arms as she sobbed at the loss, clutching his torn suit in her tiny hands. Then, Zoro knew what to do. The swordsman took a deep breath before released it, and slowly walked towards his young Nakama. Kaiyo didn’t even notice, her sobbing not letting up, as she kept rubbing her eyes. When Zoro was right in front of her, he sat down on his knees so he could be at her height, and gently pulled her to his broad chest, wrapping his arms around her shaking and small body. Kaiyo froze on the embrace, but Zoro didn’t let go, and his hold was gentle. She stood frozen for a moment before she burst into tears again and desperately cling onto the swordsman, burying her head on his shoulder. As she sobbed, Zoro rubbed her back and firmly felt her against him, trying to comfort her as much as possible.

“M-me and Sanji…stayed w-with you, wa-waiting for you to w-w-wake up…we thought you would…” she didn’t finish that sentence, but Zoro knew what she meant.

“W-we *hic*…we all l-love you Zoro… *sob* m-me an-and Sanji…love you.” Kaiyo shakingly said, wanting to get her point across to the stubborn swordsman. “We-we don't know what we w-would do w-with our you. P-please *hic* do-don’t…don’t die Zoro, d-don’t die.” Zoro swallowed thickly at her words, his own emotions flaring at how true they were.

He knew his Nakama cared about him but…the thought of them being lost without him, made his heart hurt. He…didn’t want to hurt them like that, didn’t want to hurt Sanji and Kaiyo like that.

“I’m…sorry Kaiyo, but…it’s my job to protect our captain.” He wanted to tell her more but, maybe not right now.

“I-I know I-idiot, but…y-you can’t die…you h-have to live so-so you can fulfill your dr-dream and see Luffy be-become the Pirate King. L-live. Okay?” Kaiyo tightened her hold on the swordsman, emphasizing her words. Zoro was silent for a moment, taking her words in.

The silence continued…

Then…

“Okay.” His arms tightened around her. “I won’t die. I’ll live. For you guys. For you and Sanji.” The swordsman said, sincerity and caring in his tone. Kaiyo tightened her hold even more as tears kept coming.

“T-thanks idiot.”

“No problem, short stack.”

Zoro groaned as he stood up, Kaiyo in his arms. “Come on, let's go back, their probably worried.” The young Straw Hat nodded, her head resting on his shoulder, she was tired from all the crying. The swordsman smiled at her and began walking back to the others.

He was going to keep his promise, to live, for his Nakama, for her and Sanji.


End file.
